Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

LETTER TO I. T. SMILGA713To continue. We must utilise our “power” in Finlandto conduct systematic propaganda among the Cossacks nowstationed in Finland. From Vyborg, for instance, Kerenskyand Co. purposely removed some of them, fearing Bolshevisation”,and stationed them in Uusikirkko and Perkjärvi,between Vyborg and Terijoki, in Bolshevik-proof isolation.We must study all the information about the location ofthe Cossacks, and must organise the dispatch of propagandagroups to them from among the best forces of the sailorsand soldiers in Finland. This is imperative. Do the samething about literature.4To continue. Of course, both sailors and soldiers go homeon furloughs. Out of these men we must form groups ofpropagandists to travel over the provinces systematicallyand to carry on both general propaganda and propaganda infavour of the Constituent Assembly in the villages. Yoursituation is exceptionally good because you are in a positionto begin immediately to form that bloc with the LeftSocialist-Revolutionaries which alone can give us stablepower in Russia and a majority in the Constituent Assembly.While things are being settled, organise such a bloc immediatelyin your place, organise the publication of leaflets(find out what you can do about them technically as wellas in the matter of transporting them into Russia). Theneach propaganda group for work in the rural areas shouldconsist of not less than two persons—one from the Bolsheviksand one from the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. TheSocialist-Revolutionary “trade mark” is still popular amongvillage folk and you must make the most of your goodfortune (you have some Left Socialist-Revolutionaries)to effect a bloc of the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionariesunder this “trade mark” in the countryside, abloc of peasants and workers and not of peasants andcapitalists.